Grinnell College - Inside Scoop

Quick Stats

School Slang		Beach: The area in front of a dorm; for example, Norris “Beach” is the courtyard in front of Norris Hall. FM: Facilities Management Hell Week: The week before finals, when papers and other assignments are due for most classes Hookup: Generally taken to mean a one-night session full of anything from making out to sex Leiny’s: Leinenkugel’s beer, a Grinnell favorite No Love: “You have failed.” Pit: The basement level of a residence hall Plancrastination: Procrastinating by checking or updating plans Prospie: A prospective student Sketchy: Of questionable morals Stalker Net: The Grinnell Online Directory
Things I Wish I Knew Before Coming To School		Bring a bike. Departments can be picky about which AP and IB credits you can actually use to skip prerequisites or count for your major. Don’t be afraid to talk to the professors. If you really, really need an extension, ask for it. Make friends with the people on your floor—they’re the most convenient people to go to for a sympathetic ear or pester when you’re procrastinating. No matter how smart you are, there will be a lot of people at the College who are smarter than you. The workload can be killer.
Tips to Succeed		As hard as it is, try not to procrastinate. This will save your life during Hell Week. Ask your professors for help when you don’t understand. Do the reading—at least before the final. Find people to study and work with, especially for math and science. Show up for class; participation can be a part of your grade. Study for the finals. They can be worth about a third of your grade sometimes. Take classes you think you’ll actually enjoy. Turn in all your papers (even if they’re excessively late).

Grinnell Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Inside Scoop at Grinnell College

evansemi

'13

English

A

Grinnellians

Grinnell has a pretty small student body. Some view in a negative light, but I think it's one of the best parts of the school. It allows you to intimately get to know about 1,500 of the most interesting, intelligent, and semi-insane people you will ever meet in your life.

May 03, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Grinnell College

Phortie

'09

Psychology

A

Easygoing Social Atmosphere

Grinnell students tend to be a very proud, self-focused bunch, almost to the point of acting spoiled. The faculty are largely very approachable and eager to help and the campus administration is exceptionally receptive to student demands, from a very vocal student body. I know I definitely graduated with an inflated ego and sense of entitlement, and I got hit in the face pretty hard when I tried to find a job and realized there actually were a few "limits" to my broad, liberal arts degree.

But on the other hand, leaving Grinnell where I spent a lot of time griping about this and that has left me feeling nostalgic for the community. It's rare to live in a place, I've come to realize, where you can show up to class barefoot in the same sweatshirt you wore yesterday and still expect to be treated with fairness and respect. Grinnell is the kind of place where the cross country team can streak through the library and half of the patrons won't notice. Where the student center can be plastered with provocative posters detailing the upcoming festivities planned for "Love Your Body Week" and nobody screeches about public indecency. Students generally don't form cliques and student government will reward your ingenuity through generous funding.

Mar 17, 2011

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Inside Scoop at Grinnell College

glentsch

'13

Physical Sciences

D

Amount of School Work

There is an ungodly amount of school work each night and even over spring break! It's really tough but what sets Grinnell apart is that most students are ok with all the work and do most of it.

Apr 03, 2010

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First

Facts

Traditions		2 a.m. Bakery Run: On weeknights, the Danish Maid Bakery finishes baking its pastries at 2 a.m. If you’re up late studying (or doing anything else for that matter), it’s traditional to take a quick run downtown to get something fresh out of the oven. Alice: The traditional outdoor Alice party began in 1980, died out in the ‘90s, and has recently been revived. The main point of Alice is to get as “trippy” as possible, in the literal, hallucinogenic sense of the word. While not everyone at Alice is actually tripping, the party focuses on activities that could be really cool in an altered state, like making tie-dye shirts and mixing a giant batch of home-made Play-Doh in a kiddie pool. Block Party: On the last day of finals, a sizable chunk of High Street is blocked off from early in the afternoon until early evening. Most students say the main purpose of Block Party is to get extremely drunk, but on a nice summer day after you’ve won your freedom from a hard school semester, sitting out in the sun with a bunch of friends is fun any way you look at it. Burling 4th Bathroom: It’s a tradition to scrawl graffiti on the walls of the bathroom on the fourth floor of Burling. The Burling fourth floor bathroom also has a reputation for being the location of many scandalous encounters. Moose: By far the most popular drinking game at Grinnell, this beloved sport involves an ice cube tray, a quarter, and a whole lot of beer. The idea is to bounce the quarter into the ice cube tray. If you succeed, count how many ice cubes away from the front the quarter landed; this represents the number of chugs of beer involved. If the quarter lands on the right side of the tray, you select one other person to take that many chugs. If it lands on the left side, you drink that many chugs of beer. If the quarter lands in the last two cube compartments, everyone has to put their hands up next to their head (moose-antler style) and scream “Moose!” The last person who does this has to drink the whole cup of beer (known as the “Moose Cup”). If the person playing gets the quarter into the cup, he or she has to drink the Moose Cup. The tray moves on to the next person as soon as the person playing misses. Most students are introduced to this game their freshman year. One Acts: One Acts is a theater tradition on campus that has been going on for years. These short plays are student directed and acted, and each lasts for about 15 minutes to half-an-hour. They’re usually played in The Wall Performance Lab in Bucksbaum for two nights, and like most plays, they sell out quickly, so get a ticket early. The types of plays range from conventional to extremely experimental. Some are actually student written. Relays: This late-spring event is something of a spoof on the Olympics, complete with a faculty-lit flaming toilet bowl to kick off the games. The Salon: Around finals, a student art show is held in Faulconer Gallery. All students can submit work, and a professional artist judges the pieces and decides which ones to include in the show. The judge also decides which piece is the best in the show. Two runners-up are also named. Spring and Winter Waltz: These are the two formal dances at Grinnell that take place, as the name suggests, every winter and spring. The dress code is very formal. Men wear tuxes or suits, and women wear dresses fit for prom night. High-class pre-parties with fancy foods are the norm, and most people get a bit drunk before hitting the dance floor in front of a live jazz band. Sometimes, campus groups host a dance class before the waltz so people actually know what to do when the waltzing music starts. Normally, students end up looking like fools, but it’s a blast all the same. Titular Head Film Festival: Near the end of the school year, Grinnell hosts a spoof film festival where students submit movies that run under five minutes. Tickets always disappear early. A panel of judges hands out zany-looking trophies to the best films and a series of prank awards to all the runners-up.
Urban Legends		More than 60 percent of Grinnell alumni marry other Grinnell alumni. Students can be expelled for grabbing onto the side of one of the slow-moving trains that goes through campus.
Did You Know?		The campus dormitories are modeled after the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.

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